Quinn approves more than 130 clemency requests

Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday granted more than 130 requests for clemency from people convicted of past criminal offenses.

ADRIANA COLINDRES

Gov. Pat Quinn on Wednesday granted more than 130 requests for clemency from people convicted of past criminal offenses.

The action is part of his effort to clear a "massive backlog" of almost 2,500 cases that accumulated during former Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration, a news release from Quinn's office said. The clemency requests on which Quinn acted were made in 2003 and 2004.

The governor's office provided no details about the cases, directing inquiries to the Prisoner Review Board. The board provided only the names of the individuals.

Information about the nature of the offenses and the counties where the cases originated came from Secretary of State Jesse White's office.

The cases generally involved minor crimes, such as forgery and theft, with most of the offenders sentenced to probation terms.

People request clemency for different reasons. Often, they seek certain kinds of jobs from which they're disqualified because of past criminal offenses. But they can clear that obstacle by winning clemency.

Quinn's office said Wednesday that each person who got clemency has gone through a criminal background check. Since becoming governor earlier this year, Quinn has approved 179 clemency petitions and denied 182 of them.

Several of the requests he granted involved cases from circuit courts in GateHouse-area counties. Here are the names of individuals who got clemency, along with their offenses and the years they were sentenced.